


Introduction to Gravity

by ididthatonce



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: ADHD Annie Edison if you squint, Dry Humping, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I'm sorry for this, Night Terrors, Sharing a Bed, Sleep Sex, and they were ROOMMATES, human weighted blanket
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27614294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ididthatonce/pseuds/ididthatonce
Summary: Annie accidentally destroys Abed's very expensive, probably illegal weighted blanket, which keeps him from having night terrors.   The only solution that makes any sense to get everyone some sleep is to be Abed's human weighted blanket.  A little hurt/comfort, a little fluff, a little smut if you want.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Abed Nadir
Comments: 24
Kudos: 100





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For a cute fluffy hurt/comfort ficlet about nonsexual physical intimacy, read chapter 1 only.
> 
> For the sexual stuff that I honestly don't know the origin or purpose of and that I'm slightly ashamed about, read chapters 1 and 2.
> 
> And please don't use an actual 100-lb weighted blanket. You'll probably die. Practice safe blanketing.

It was an honest mistake, really. And if it was anyone’s fault, it was Abed’s. He should have been taking better care of his blankets and washing his sheets more regularly. And if he wasn’t going to do his own laundry, he should have known better than to throw his absurdly expensive, not-machine-washable, literally-illegally-heavy weighted blanket onto the pile of laundry he kept on his floor. So, really, it wasn’t Annie’s fault that she picked it up and threw it in the washing machine along with the rest of the laundry. And it certainly wasn’t Annie’s fault that the blanket ripped open in the washing machine, spilling thousands of plastic pellets into the laundry room like some kind of morbid Mary Poppins bag.

It would have been magical in other circumstances, like candy raining from the sky in Kazaam. But it wasn’t. It certainly wasn’t funny to Abed, when Annie asked him to move the laundry around and, watching the pellets pour out in slow-motion, let out a whine so high-pitch, the neighbor’s Yorkie started barking.

“You did what?!?” Troy shouted, comforting Abed, who was kneeling on the floor, letting plastic pellets run through his hand like a cartoon character stranded in the desert who had just discovered that the oasis he’d found was just a well-animated mirage.

Annie shrugged her shoulders to her ears, half willing herself to disappear. “It was on the pile where he puts the rest of your laundry! I didn’t know it was a weighted blanket!”

Troy raised his arms above his head. “It’s weighted! Did you not realize that it was significantly heavier than the laundry pile normally is?”

“I’ve been going to the gym! And, anyway, you know I don’t like to ask questions about your laundry.” Annie squealed. “Besides, I saw weighted blankets on sale at Target this week. I’ll get another one. Easy peasy.”

Abed’s voice was clear and quiet. “You can’t get it at Target. It’s a special blanket.”

“So I’ll get it off Amazon. No big! My brother lets me use his Prime account sometimes.” Annie replied.

“No, it’s special.” Troy repeated.

“I have to get it through a dealer.” Abed nodded.  
“It’s illegal in the US.” Troy noted. “Too heavy.”

Annie scoffed, “I’m pretty sure the FDA isn’t regulating blankets.”

“No, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco is.” Abed stated, picking up another handful of pellets. “Technically, it’s a weapon. My dealer works at the Finnish embassy and has diplomatic immunity. They get it from a Norwegian company who make the blankets for Nordic winters.”

Annie’s face went white. “How heavy are these things anyway?”

“95 pounds.” Troy and Abed said in unison.

“Is that safe?” Annie asked, her lip quivering.

Troy shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. It’s the only way he can sleep.”

Annie’s eyes began to water. “And how long is it going to take to get another one?”

Abed stared into space for a moment. “It’s September, so Bjorn should have a few left over as backstock. Avi will be back in the country for Thanksgiving. So mid-November at the latest.”

“Avi?” Annie asked.

Abed shrugged half-heartedly. “His mother is Israeli.”

“But, Abed,” Annie sat, cross-legged in the middle of the living room, “are you going to be okay until then?”

Abed thought it over. “Probably not. I haven’t had night terrors since I started using the Tungt Blanket, which would imply that I may have them again without the blanket.”  
Troy glared at Annie. She tried her best to ignore him.

“But that’s doesn’t mean you’ll have them for sure.” She said, but the sentence came out as a question. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

***  
He wasn’t fine.

Sure, the first night went by without a hitch. In fact, Abed slept better than he had in months, even hitting the snooze button on his legit-from-the-80’s alarm clock a record five times before getting out of bed. Annie smiled weakly at Troy over their Lucky Charms the fourth time they heard the local radio station go silent, and Troy nodded approvingly.

The second night wasn’t too bad either, although Troy noted over breakfast that Abed slept restlessly and had, at one point, thrown a pillow clear across the room. Regardless, Abed seemed to be in good spirits for the rest of the day.

The third night broke the streak. At exactly 3:22 AM, Abed let out a bloodcurdling scream that lasted exactly 15 seconds, waking Annie, Troy, and several neighbors (and their dogs) up with a start. At 4:46 AM, he thrashed about in his sleep so strongly that the entire bunk bed shook. Troy had tried to wake Abed and soothe him, but Abed could not seem to wake up. Troy and Annie spent the rest of the night worriedly pacing the apartment, hoping that Abed would wake up before he accidentally fell off the top bunk.

The rest of the week continued along those lines. Sometimes Abed would wake with a start and scream. Sometimes he would kick and punch in his sleep. During one unsettling incident, he managed to get out of bed, walk to the bathroom, and run a bath before waking up. Troy agreed to sleep on the top bunk until the night terrors passed. Annie offered up her room, noting the outside lock on her door that would help keep Abed from traveling too far in his sleep. He declined both offers, curling up on the beat-up couch each night instead. He still didn’t sleep well, but he didn’t sleepwalk into the bathroom again.

Two weeks in, Abed was barely sleeping through the night. His face became gaunt and the bags under his eyes grew. He even started drinking coffee during the day. Annie and Troy hadn’t slept well either. They had developed sleeping shifts so that one of them could keep an eye or ear on their roommate to make sure that he wouldn’t hurt himself. The apartment felt like a powderkeg ready to explode.  
The spark was nothing special—an irritating commercial that, in easier times, would have made the trio laugh. Instead, it set Troy off.

“I can’t deal with this.” He announced. “This is out of control.” He got up from his seat in the living room and walked a small loop between his room and the bathroom.

Abed rubbed his eyes. “Troy is right. Something’s gotta give. I know that’s a movie but I don’t have a joke for it right now.”

“Well what do you suggest we do?” Annie ask-shouted. “I can’t make Avi the Norwegian come to the country sooner.”

“He’s Finnish.” Abed and Troy replied in unison.

Annie crossed her arms indignantly. “Whatever. Can’t we just use a lighter weighted blanket? I’ll go to Target for it now.”

“No, it doesn’t do the trick.” Troy answered. “If the weight isn’t heavy enough, Abed can’t sleep.”

“Then we’ll get two blankets. Or three or however many it takes.” Annie retorted.

Troy rolled his eyes. “It’s not the same.”

“Well I’m trying!” She shouted. “At least try to come up with something, you useless cabbages!”

Abed looked directly into Annie’s eyes with an intensity that scared her. “In order to sleep, I need about 100 pounds of weight pressed directly and evenly across my body. That is the only thing that will help me sleep.”

Annie waved her arm dismissively. “I don’t know, have Troy lay on top of you.”

“I’m too heavy.” Troy sneered.

Annie felt the metaphorical light bulb shine over her head. “Wait, Abed… I weigh about 100 pounds. A little more but not enough to matter.”

Troy and Abed looked at her, eyes glowing with either delirium, sleepiness, or a combination thereof. “It’s so crazy,” they said together, “it just might work.”

***  
The decision was made and, not wanting to let go of their latest scheme, they set to work immediately setting up a plan. Abed would sleep in Annie’s bed, face-down, and Annie would be his human weighted blanket. Abed created a diagram of the most important points of contact and how to best lay to distribute her weight. They practiced with her stuffies, creating optimal sleeping positions. Annie placed her taser on her bedside table in case Abed got violent in his sleep. Troy would set an alarm and check on them every 3 hours. By the time the sun started to set, they had an elaborate, scientific, and completely ridiculous plan.

Annie and Abed agreed to shower before bed, and Annie went first. She dressed with her door closed, rifling through her neatly-folded pajamas, trying to find the perfect outfit. What did one wear to lay on top of their friend and roommate for 8 hours? She finally decided on a floral-print pajama set, with a button-down shirt and long pants. It would be warm with the extra body head, she thought, but it would be inappropriate to wear anything more revealing, right? She laughed at herself and her worries, combined with sleep deprivation.

A soft but insistent knock on her door quieted her laughter. “Come in.” She offered. For a brief moment, she worried that she should have asked who was knocking because, if the knocker had been a vampire, she would have just invited a vampire into her room, possibly permanently. She considered simultaneously that Abed might be a vampire, and a chill ran down her spine over the possibility. She reminded herself to use logic, closed her eyes, counted to five, and opened them to find…

Abed. In floral pajamas basically identical to hers. She considered asking about them or making a joke that one of them would need to change but, like she did with most of Troy and Abed’s bits, she decided to ignore it and prepare to sleep instead.

They silently smiled and nodded at each other. Annie yawned, and Abed mimicked the action. Annie presented her bed, freshly-made, to Abed as if showing off a particularly prized trophy. Abed wordlessly crawled under the duvet and flat sheet and laid down with his face in her pillow.

“These are really nice sheets.” He offered, merely as an observation into the pillow.

Annie giggled. “They’re from Pottery Barn. Well, the Pottery Barn outlet. I got them on a 90% discount.”

“Sweet.” Abed sighed, reaching his arm out to give a thumbs-up behind his back.

Annie climbed on top of him as they had practiced with her stuffies, Mr. Bunny Wunny and Rev. Dr. Kitten. She put each hand in the space between Abed’s neck and shoulder, and a knee on either side of his hips. Carefully, she lowered her body so that her weight was completely and evenly distributed across his torso. He let out a contented sigh.

“You good?” She asked. He made an affirmative noise into the pillow. “Am I too heavy?” she followed up, nervously.

He picked his head from the pillow. “I can’t see your face, so I can’t tell if you’re asking because you’re concerned about my well-being or because you’re concerned about your own weight as a measure of your physical attractiveness. The answer to those in order are: one, I am comfortable with the weight on top of me and, two, your weight is merely a measure of the Earth’s gravity on your mass and irrelevant to how attractive you are because attraction is subjective.” He dropped his head back down.

Annie smiled to herself. She started to ask another question, but Abed’s breath was slowing and a gentle snore was coming from below her. She rested her head in the crook of his neck as he had demonstrated with her stuffed snake, Justice Antonin Scaley. Her mind was racing, and she closed her eyes tightly. She focused on Abed’s breathing, trying to sync her breaths with his. I was rather nice, she thought, having someone beneath her in bed. Well, not in bed but in her bed. She’d had a handful of people in her bed, but normally they wanted more than to fall asleep, especially that one boy she’d dated right after leaving rehab who would never stop talking about her feet.

She tightened her closed eyes until they made sparks behind her eyelids. No, Abed, she reminded herself. He wants to sleep. He needs to sleep. She needed to sleep as well. Annie focused her energy and considered how much less warm Abed’s body was than she expected. In fact, she noticed, she felt a bit chilly. Carefully shifting her weight, she pulled her duvet up to her neck.

The next thing she knew, it was morning and Abed was stirring under her. Annie repositioned her hands and knees and rolled off him. She watched his eyes flutter open and a yawn take over his mouth. She became suddenly aware of her morning hair, but willed herself to put the propriety of her appearances aside for a moment. For her friend.

“Sleep well?” She asked coolly.

Abed nodded. “Very well. No sleep paralysis demons or nightmares this time.”

Annie smiled, hoping she would convey both relief and concern in it.

“Did you sleep well?” Abed asked, mimicking Annie’s tone.

“I did, surprisingly.” She said. “I didn’t have to tase you once, bro.”

***  
Annie made pancakes in celebration of a good night’s sleep. Troy joined their breakfast about an hour later, yawning as he made his way out of the bedroom. He, too, was wearing the same floral pajamas, and Annie decided again not to mention it. “I’d ask how you both slept,” he offered, “but every time I checked on you, you both were out cold.”

“Yeah, I think we did okay.” Annie grinned.

Abed agreed. “So far so good.”

The roommates spent the rest of the day enjoying themselves as only well-rested people could. They enjoyed a good-bad movie, made an extra-large batch of stovetop popcorn, and even managed to take a walk around the nature preserve down the street. Abed offered to make buttered noodles for dinner, and Annie didn’t even balk at the ratio of butter-to-noodle-to-parmesan on the plate set before her.

They laughed over dinner and, together, agreed not to share the details of their Annie: the Human Weighted Blanket arrangement with the rest of the study group. After all, the others would be confused at best and horrified at worst. Troy did an especially good impression of Shirley’s hypothetical response, which consisted of five prayers preceded by a sarcastic, “that’s nice.”

Abed started yawning around 8 PM, and he and Annie agreed to turn in early. Like the night before, she had showered first, and spent a few moments picking out her sleep attire. She settled on another pair of button-down shirt and matching pants, this time in a pale pink. Abed knocked on her door, and she thoughtfully asked, “who is it,” just in case a vampire decided to sneak in. She smiled when he announced his name, followed by, “not a vampire.” She opened the door, to find him, thankfully, wearing his normal sleep attire, a leftover Greendale tee and forest green sweatpants. She made a mental note to ask about the floral pajamas one day, but not that day.

He settled into her bed, and she crawled on top of him, still careful to distribute her weight evenly. She opened her mouth to ask if he was comfortable, but his snore answered the question before she could ask it.


	2. Chapter 2

November 1st rolled around and Abed proudly announced that he had a tracking number for his illegal weighted blanket, and that it would be delivered by the 15th. Annie cheered along with Troy at the announcement but, secretly, she was sad to be losing her partner in sleep. She had been serving as Abed’s makeshift weighted blanket for just over a month, and she found the arrangement as beneficial as he did. Truth be told, she liked having another body in her bed. It was like an extra stuffie, but one that could talk back and make her laugh. Plus, she had to admit, there was something soothing about feeling Abed’s breathing and heartbeat at night. Her teddy bear, RuPaw, couldn’t compare.

Annie has also noticed that the intimacy of sleeping together (not together but together) had strengthened her friendship with Abed. Even Britta noticed that they went on more adventures together. They sat close together during movie nights, even held hands once or twice while grocery shopping. Hopeless romantic though she was, Annie felt no different about him. It was simply nice to share a physical touch with another human being.

One afternoon, while hunting down one of the Dean’s lost shoes in an Indiana Jones homage, Abed pulled Annie aside into an alcove off the cafeteria where a payphone booth had once sat. Abed took off his hat, shook out his hair, and handed Annie his bullwhip as if it were a particularly smelly bag of trash. “Troy told me that I have to tell you that I had a sex dream about you.”

Annie snorted, thankful she hadn’t decided to take a swig of water at that exact moment. “What happened?”

Abed sighed. “A sex dream,” he repeated, “about you. Nothing interesting, I promise.”

“I’d sat the fact that it happened is interesting!” She laughed nervously.

He shrugged. “Not really. This is the…” he counted on his fingers, “…eighth sex dream I’ve had about you since we met. But Troy told me to tell you about this one because it happened since we started sleeping together. Well not sleeping together in a Ross and Rachel kind of way but—”

Annie silenced him by placing the hat back on his head and the whip back in his hands. “Not now.”

***  
The Dean’s shoe was returned to much fanfare and flirty banter with Jeff. Chang even made an appearance as Short Round, although both Annie and Britta agreed that the entire exchange was pretty problematic. The group came back to Annie, Abed, and Troy’s apartment for drinks to celebrate a job well done. Annie patiently and politely ushered out the stragglers by 11 PM.

Emotionally exhausted, she collapsed into her favorite spot on the couch and motioned for Abed to sit next to her. He perched himself on the edge of the seat. Troy sat in his favorite recliner.

“Could Abed and I have a moment alone?” Annie asked Troy.

Troy crossed his arms. “Anything you can say to Abed, you can say to me.”

Annie raised an eyebrow. “So you know that Abed had a sex dream about me and I—”

“Bye.” Troy announced, getting up from his seat. “I’m going to bed.” He shouted, already in his room.  
Annie and Abed stared at each other for a second, which turned into a moment, and then a minute. Annie finally broke the silence. “Do you want to tell me about these dreams?”

Abed shrugged. “Nothing they wouldn’t show on late-night Cinemax.”

She waited for an explanation. He stayed silent. She asked, “Well, is this a thing?”

He considered her question. “Technically everything is a thing. But if you mean a Ben/Leslie thing, no.”

Annie’s face fell, surprising herself.

“Your face changed.” Abed noted. “Did I upset you?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing like that. It’s just that I thought you had… I don’t know.” She finished.

“Dreams are our brains’ way of making sense of the stimuli we take in each day. They’re ultimately meaningless.” He recited. Then, with a thought, added, “Although they’re sometimes plot contrivances.”

“Did you ever… you know?” She asked.

He stared blankly. “I really don’t know what you mean.”

She rolled her eyes and whispered, “you know,” making a loose fist and shaking it next to her hip, “about these dreams?”

He pressed his lips together. “If I say you’ll get mad at me.”

“No, no no,” her voice raised an octave. “I promise I won’t.”

He twisted his mouth to the side in thought. “Once.” He said, “Right after you moved in. You were in the shower.”

“A-bed!” She replied, throwing a sofa pillow at him.

He threw his arms up in defeat. “I’d had the dream three nights in a row! Troy said that it might get it out of my system.”

Annie laughed. Then, she looked at the clock and blushed. It was nearly 1 AM, time for sleep. She stood up, brushed off her knees and announced that she would take a shower. Abed nodded politely and retreated into his and Troy’s room to get ready.

***  
The air was tense in Annie’s room when Abed came in after his shower. Mercifully, he wasn’t matching her pajamas again. He rolled into bed silently, and she followed him, a routine they had worn well over the previous month. Annie’s brain was humming with activity, but she willed herself to silence it and focus instead of Abed’s breathing, matching her inhales to his exhales and vice versa. Slowly and gently, she drifted off to sleep.

She awoke with a start a few hours later, although the sky was dark enough that she couldn’t immediately tell how many. Something felt off, and she blindly felt her surroundings to determine what was wrong. Abed was still under her. She felt for shoulders, legs, feet, all in position and still. She nuzzled her head into his neck and felt his nose bump the back of her head. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and his face came into view. He had somehow managed to turn over underneath her and was facing up.

This had happened once before, no big deal. Annie took a breath, focused her thoughts on his heartbeat, and laid her head down. And the he jerked into her hips.

Her eyes sprang open and she lifted her head up. She examined his face: eyes closed but not tight, mouth slightly ajar. He was definitely asleep. Maybe it was an accident?

He jerked again, this time with something that felt like intention. She could feel something changing, growing, poking at her hip. Her face flushed at the realization: he was getting hard underneath her. He jerked again and, heaven help her, Annie’s hips shifted back together on instinct.

“Abed,” she whispered, trying to wake him up with as little drama as possible. “Abed, wake up.”

His eyes fluttered open and he smiled at her. “Good morning.”

“Not good morning.” She hissed at him. “We have a situation—”

He stretched his legs and arched his back, the motion pushing his pelvis forward and angling his erection towards her. The surprise cut her off mid-sentence and made both of them moan quietly.

Abed looked around the room blankly, gathering his thoughts. “Okay, so it seems like we’re in an accidental but hilarious sexual situation. If this were a softcore movie or a Seth Rogen comedy—”

“This is not a Seth Rogen comedy.” Annie hissed. “This is real life and we need to—”

He silenced her with a kiss that she quickly melted into.

“Right, that’s what would happen in a Rom Com.” He asserted. “But this situation is less Meg Ryan and more James Franco. And if Franco was in this position, he would ride it out.”

Annie stared at him. “Are you James Franco in this situation, or am I? And what do you mean, ‘ride it out’?”

He grinned, thrust his hips up gently, and answered, “We’re both James Franco, I think.”

She mimicked the motion, grinding down into him, and he let out an impressive growl. “Is this okay?” She asked, not fully knowing herself what she was asking for.

He nodded enthusiastically and pulled her into another kiss. Slowly, gently, they ground into each other, taking advantage of the friction and heat between them. Quietly, they moaned into each other’s necks, panting, finding purchase on their bodies until they both went taut, tumbling one after the other into ecstasy. Annie laid her head on Abed’s chest, listening to his heart pound before slowly return to its normal pace. He tapped her shoulder and she rolled off, letting him slide out to clean up. A few moments later, he returned to bed, and she lay on top of him again, this time quickly falling asleep.

***  
They continued sleeping together (but not together together) for the next few weeks. Sometimes Abed would wake Annie up with a kiss and they would grind together back to sleep. Most of the time, they just slept, Annie nuzzled into Abed’s back.

As if on cue, the new blanket arrived on November 15th, lugged by a man dressed as a UPS driver who was definitely not a UPS driver. He pushed the package onto the welcome mat in front of their apartment and sprinted back to his car before the doorbell stopped ringing. Annie helped Abed open the new blanket and inspect it. She even took a Sharpie from her collection and proudly wrote on the tag, “do not machine wash.”

She hugged Abed before they went to sleep that night, this time in their own beds. Annie lay awake that night, feeling cold. She pulled her stuffies close, but it wasn’t the same. She closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep. After what might have been a couple hours, she was awakened by a knocking on her door. “Who is it?” She asked, groggy.

“Abed, not a vampire.” He responded. She welcomed him in, and he dragged his new blanket in. She rolled to the side and made space for him. He kissed her silently and, draping the blanket over both of them, they easily fell asleep.

Troy woke up later than Annie and Abed the next morning, as usual, and joined them for breakfast. He yawned and stretched. “I got up last night and you weren’t in your bed.” He told Abed, raising an eyebrow.

Abed nodded. “I think I’m going to stick to Annie’s bed for a bit.” Troy looked at them quizzically.

“The sheets are better.” Annie offered. “Pottery Barn.”

Troy squinted at them, then shrugged his shoulders and dug into his Lucky Charms.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I really love this pairing and I may play around with them a little more. I am open to suggestions: romantic, sexual, or purely platonic. <3


End file.
